Menu

Skip to content
  • Home

Daily Archives: December 9, 2014

Standard

Posted by

alistairkb

Posted on

December 9, 2014

Posted under

Y1 Creative Futures, YEAR 1

Comments

Leave a comment

Good and Bad Branding

There are a lot of factors to take into consideration when creating a good logo. Colours, shapes target audience, competitors, message and meaning. Here are a few examples I found of each.

mcd

McDonalds logos one of the most iconic of all, regardless of age, gender or ethnicity this worldwide brand is instantly recognisable. Which it simply represents the M at the beginning of the word, which is actually originally taken from the original statement “golden arches”. The restaurant when first opened, had two large yellow arches on either side to make the building stand out:

mcd1

When the logo was redesigned in 1962 they decided to design the logo as if someone was standing at an angle to the restaurant looking at it. As yellow has connotations of happiness, it would appeal to people passing by as a happy well-presented restaurant. It’s simplicity is key to making it instantly recognisable, containing no words, and language can understand what the logo is and what it stands for.

To fit in with a younger, a more social demographic, McDonalds rebranded itself to Macca’s in Australia, Macca’s is Australian slang for the restaurant and they picked up on this and decided to take advantage of this in their rebrand. The company’s chief marketing officer in Australia said “What better way to show Aussies how proud we are to be a part of the Australian community than change our store signs to the name the community has given us?”.

mcd2

coke

Coca-Cola logo is very iconic, again is a worldwide brand that was originally, in 1886, branded as an ‘intellectual drink’ that contained coca plant extracts to cure all nervous affections. The logo scroll typeface was based upon the handwriting of the pharmacist who created the drink. You can see both his and his handwriting in this image:

coke1

It is also worth noting that coca-cola is also responsible for the santa claus we all love and recognise today, in 1920 , they created a campaign where santa was shown as over-weight with a large white beard, this became the norm decades to come. The idea behind coke now is more about the experience of sharing happiness and positivity rather than enjoying a drink, and this can be seen in many of coca-cola’s marketing campaigns.

What’s interesting is that the companies that have been most successful all play on the ideology of the american dream. They all, In some capacity like to link their products to the classic american lifestyle, and you can actually see evidence of this in a lot of their products and their marketing campaigns. McDonalds have gone all out and even created a “tastes of america” menu featuring the burgers of different states:

mcd3

Coca Cola have played on the american dream with almost every single advertisement they have ever produced, below is an image of a complication of all the different adverts they’ve made. It features happy soldiers, nice cars, beautiful people, american inventions such as the lightbulb, landing on the moon and fashion. All about a time when the people has ultimate trust in their governments, corporations and science in comparison to today where people are much less trusting of these things than they used to be.

coke2

Cadillac has a very interesting logo, one that isn’t as instantly recognisable but is probably seen as more luxurious brand.

2000 newlogo

The logo has laurel wreaths around a crest, the wreath is something that can be related to luxury right back to about 3BC when they were handed out in Greece to the winners in the ancient olympics. LaMothe Cadillac was the person who founded cadillac in 1701, and used his family crest in the logo.

The target audience of Cadillac is primarily middle aged businessmen, and they also like to play on the ‘american dream’ you can see it in their modern advertisement for the Cadillac ELR:

This very carefully constructed advert appeals directly to the upper-working class, displaying things like the pool, kids, new technology, nice home, attractive wife, nice clothes and nice car. The character questions consumerism, then provides the answer by stating “As for all thew stuff, thats the upside of only taking two weeks off in August”. He basically states that hard work pays off and then makes examples of wealth american businessmen, discusses the landing on the moon and then states “were the only ones going back up there”. This advert goes a long way to promote the american dream in an age where the american dream isn’t such a thing anymore, by talking about and showing luxury items and thing connected to america. You can watch the advert here;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGJSI48gkFc

On the other end of the scale are some really poorly designed logos, the biggest ‘fail’ of all time is the one created for the 2012 London Olympics.

LO

It was called racist by Iran, and they threatened to withdraw from the games because of it. It can be see to be a rude act by Lisa Simpson on a man. While unique this logo had a massive backlash within the media, as designers across Britain believed they could have done better. The typeface was seen as looking very greek and unprofessional.

Pepsi rebranding took their logo and changed the direct on the curves in it. The upwards strokes could almost be seen as a smile, or the happiness that would occur when drinking pepsi. It is also very similar to the logo used to promote the Obama campaign, the light at the end of the tunnel/sun above the horizon means a new, brighter day. for look. You can see the old, new and Obama logo here:

pep

pep2

This was also seen as a clumsy rebranding though as with a small addition to the logo, it looked like a fat man with shirt too small for his stomach.

pep3

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Arches

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9787581/McDonalds-rebrands-to-Maccas-in-Australia.html

http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/our_story/our_history.html

http://www.burgerbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/McD_Aussie_Tastes-of-America.jpg

http://envisioningtheamericandream.com/

https://bandt-au.s3.amazonaws.com/information/uploads/2014/08/JPcocacola.jpg?870196

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgZUaLTSAQI

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurel_wreath

http://www.luxurydaily.com/cadillac-targets-business-minded-consumers-via-mobile-ads/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/26/this-commercial-sums-up-e_n_4859040.html

http://emagining.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/pepsi-farcical.jpg

http://www.billjacobscadillac.com/blog/history-of-the-cadillac-logo-what-does-it-stand-for/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/26/this-commercial-sums-up-e_n_4859040.html

Advertisement
Standard

Posted by

alistairkb

Posted on

December 9, 2014

Posted under

Y1 Creative Futures, YEAR 1

Comments

Leave a comment

The Selection Process – Colour

Once I had chosen a couple of designs to take forward, my next step was to create the same logos in much better quality with a bit more taken, I applied the colours I had chosen from my colour research and ended up with an entire set of five logos in the desired colour. Here they are;
Graph

Infinity

I am now left with the task of deciding which colour logo to keep. To start this I look back to my colour research and firstly realise that blue is a corporate colour that large banks and technology companies use, whilst I was going for the down-to-earth cool & reliable designer look, it would be too easily mixed up with the corporations so I decided to scrap this colour. Next, I printed the previous pictures out so that I could see what they would like on my marketing material. This was a brilliant idea as the gold turned into a dark yellow colour on the paper and the orange-red didn’t look as bright as it did on screen. Great so i’m now left with brown and purple versions. I decide not to go with the brown as it looks like a dirty colour, and has connotations of nature and thought that purple best suited my design.
VS

Now I’m simply left with one decision, which logo do I prefer? Well looking at both logos it actually seems reasonably easy given that the graph has more of a meaning to my work and the progression I hope to have at Hull college as a student. So I have decided to stick with this logo. Below you can see the final editions of the logo with a little extra detail added in to add in a bit of interest in rather it just being a plain gradient, then I have also reduced them to really small sizes to make sure they work from a distance, which they do. This is the logo I will use for my self promotion.

Detail-&-Variation

Cover Image (http://blogpchcom.c.presscdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/redcarpet-1024×770.jpg)

Categories

  • Y1 C.A.T.S.
  • Y1 Creative Futures
  • Y1 Interactive & Interface Design
  • Y1 Photography
  • Y1 Sound & Audio
  • Y1 User Centered Design
  • Y1 Video & Motion
  • Y2 Interactive Communication Practices
  • Y2 Interactive Communication Practices Part 2
  • Y2 Technologies, Platforms and the User Experience
  • Y2 Technologies, Platforms and the User Experience Part 2
  • Y3 C.A.T.S.
  • Y3 Creative Futures
  • Y3 Major Project for the Web
  • YEAR 1
  • YEAR 2
  • YEAR 3

Tags

Acorn Adobe akb america Apple art branding california camera client cms coachella code coding colour content content management system CSS depth of field Design evaluation exhibition experience Ferens Art Gallery Hull festival flat font France Frog Voyage future of iPhone google gun holster HTML Hull City Illustrator images iPhone logo Logos london luxury marketing Mars material mobile mockup money museum no colour Paris persona philosiphers stone Photoshop polymer polymer project presentation printing promotion quality redesign research Roofing self shapes style typeface USA user war Web website whaling Wireframe Y1 Photography
Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • akbrodie.wordpress.com
    • Join 59 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • akbrodie.wordpress.com
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...